The invention relates to a testbench device, in particular a tribometer.
For a substantial and, in particular, effective analysis or optimisation of friction systems, tribometers, as they are known, are regularly used. Tribometers are testbenches developed especially for investigating tribological variables, such as, for example, friction, wear or lubrication. In vehicle development, above all, the optimisation of the most diverse possible friction systems constitutes an essential area of development in order to utilise the potential of optimisations relating to efficiency and to service life and in order to satisfy future requirements. In particular the piston group/cylinder runway friction system plays an important part in this context, since up to 50 percent of the overall friction losses of an internal combustion engine may occur here.
DE 10 2009 008 272 A1 discloses a tribometer testbench, by means of which friction and wear between a cylinder runway segment, produced, for example, from a cylinder crankcase or from a cylinder liner, and a piston ring or a piston ring segment can be measured. The piston ring is fastened here to a sturdy fixed holder. The cylinder runway segment, capable of being brought into bearing contact with the piston ring, is fastened to a travelling slide which can be moved back and forth in oscillation in a defined direction in relation to the holder and with a defined stroke. As a result of the movement of the cylinder runway segment in relation to the piston ring, the processes in an internal combustion engine are thus to be simulated. Furthermore, the travelling slide has a heating element that can heat the cylinder runway segment to a defined temperature. Moreover, the cylinder runway segment can be pressed against the piston ring with a defined pressure force by means of weights. Using the heating element and the weights, simulation is to be made increasingly close to reality. However, such a tribometer testbench nevertheless has the disadvantage that the reproducibility of the simulation results and, in particular, also the transferability of the simulation results to a real internal combustion engine system are greatly restricted.